BMSK5005: Analyzing Workplace Culture & Organizational Efficiency

This report examines the impact of workplace culture on organizational efficiency, using Amazon as a case study. It includes a strategic situation analysis using PESTLE and SWOT frameworks to understand Amazon's strategic direction. The report highlights workforce diversity, performance management, and effective communication as key pillars of an effective workplace within Amazon. It also delves into the company's values, ethos, sustainability efforts, and communication channels. The analysis identifies barriers to effective functioning, such as wealth disparity and cybercrime, and suggests strategies to overcome them, emphasizing the importance of environmental sustainability and leveraging technology.

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 1
Assignment Title: Workplace Culture and Its
impact on organizational efficiency
Student Name-
Student Number-
Module Name-
Module Number-

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 2
Executive Summary
The report titled as Workplace culture and its impact on the organizational efficiency
has used the company Amazon as the business organization and gives an in-depth
understanding of the concept of workplace culture and what it takes to work in
accordance to the norms of the organization. A strategic situation analysis of the
organization is done in order to understand the strategic direction of the organization.
Workforce diversity, performance management and effective communication are the
three pillars to effective workplace in the organization as citied in the case analysis of
Amazon Incorporation.

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 3
Table of Content
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Findings and Analysis.................................................................................................................................... 5
PESTLE Analysis............................................................................................................................................... 5
Political Forces............................................................................................................................................. 6
Economic Impact......................................................................................................................................... 6
Socio/Cultural Impact................................................................................................................................ 7
Technological Impact................................................................................................................................. 7
Legal Factors.................................................................................................................................................. 8
Environmental Impact............................................................................................................................... 8
SWOT Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 8
Strength........................................................................................................................................................... 9
Weakness........................................................................................................................................................ 9
Opportunity................................................................................................................................................. 10
Threats.......................................................................................................................................................... 10
Formal & Informal Groups at Amazon.................................................................................................. 11
Organization culture, values and Ethos at Amazon......................................................................... 12
Values at Amazon...................................................................................................................................... 12
Culture of Sustainability at the workplace.......................................................................................... 13
Innovation and Creativity...................................................................................................................... 13

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 4
Customer centricity.................................................................................................................................. 13
Vision as the Culture................................................................................................................................ 13
Corporate social and environmental responsibility........................................................................14
Communication channels........................................................................................................................... 14
Amazon Chime........................................................................................................................................... 14
Social Media................................................................................................................................................ 15
Open Forums.............................................................................................................................................. 15
Barriers to effective functioning of organization and strategies to overcome them.........16
Workforce diversity................................................................................................................................. 16
Effective communication....................................................................................................................... 16
Performance Management.................................................................................................................... 17
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................ 17
References........................................................................................................................................................ 18

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 5
Introduction
Internet and Globalization are the two major contributors towards the state of the
organizational structure today. It is due to rapid globalization and proliferation of
internet and digital technologies which has led to numerous innovation and disruptions
to the existing business models. Amazon is one such company which was founded soon
after the Internet started spreading its wings. The company Amazon was founded in the
year 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online book seller(Zhou & Wang, 2018). The company
which was founded at the back of a garage has now presence in more than 12 countries
and ships products across 130 countries. In the last decade Amazon has evolved from a
online book seller, to a full- fledged online seller and now it has further transformed
into a technology company. The vision of Jeff Bezos is to be the most customer centric
company on the face of planet and he also aims to sell anything to everything that I
customer might search online. Amazon is the largest e-commerce player which sells
products in the category of lifestyle, home décor, home appliances, consumer
electronics, consumer durables, Kids, tech products and many more such offerings(Tran
et. al., 2014).

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 6
The e-commerce behemoth which has its headquarters in Seattle, earned a revenue of
US $ 136 Billion in the year 2016 and has more than 300 million active consumers on its
platform. The strategy of Jeff Bezos here is to provide customers with an enriched
customer shopping experience and provide them value deals so they always return
back(Wang & Luo,2017). Jeff believes in the power of remarketing and retargeting,
which helps the company to stay loyal to its customers. Policies and procedures at
Amazon are seen as customer centric, as the company gives paramount importance to
its huge customer base. Amazon has earned a great name for itself owing to its great
customer centric policies, selection of goods, fast delivery, superior quality of products,
curated shopping list and many such elements, which makes the company one of the
greatest the world has so far witnessed(Epstein, 2018).
Considering the above introduction as the preamble to the report, the report will
provide an understanding of the workplace culture and context with the view of
improving one’s ability to function within the norms of the organization. The report will
focus critically assess the culture and the context of the organization, evaluate the
organization using the management tools such as PESTLE and SWOT. The report will
delve into a deeper understanding of the concepts of impact of external environmental
forces on the organization, formal and informal relationships between the department

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 7
and the people in the organization. The report will also discuss in brief about the culture
of the organization which is the reason for its workplace sustainability. The readers will
also get an insight on the ethical standards in the company, its value and belief system,
along with the communication channels used for sharing and building relationship with
the stakeholders. Towards the end, certain barriers to effective functioning of the
organization will be discussed along with the recommendation to overcome them.
Findings and Analysis
This section will focus on the external and internal environmental analysis of Amazon
with the focus on its workplace culture, values, beliefs, communication culture, ethical
standards and corporate social and environmental responsibility.
PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE analysis can be understood as an analytic tool which is used for strategic
business planning. The extremely important strategic framework is used to understand
the external influence on a business. The influence on the business is ascertained
according to different forces viz; Political, economic, socio/cultural, technological, legal
and environmental .The impact of these forces on Amazon will be ascertained in this
section.

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 8
(Source: Makos, 2015)
Political Forces
The impact of political forces on Amazon can be ascertained by considering the
following three cases, which are:
 Political stability of the developed nations can be considered as an opportunity
for Amazon, as it gives the company leverage to expand its business operation
and do addition to its existing product lie. The political stability also provides the
company with the advantage of experimentation, this is the reason behind
Amazon’s drone delivery and Amazon go store are in beta testing in the
developed countries(Zhang et. al., 2015).
 Government support towards e-commerce can be considered both as a threat
and an opportunity for Amazon. The opportunity can be seen as the government
provides tax benefits and lax in its policies to develop the e-commerce sector.

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 9
The threat can be in terms of increasing competition owing to the support of the
government towards the start-ups in the e-commerce sector.
 The increasing efforts of the government towards the increasing threat of cyber
security will help in bringing more customers to online shopping, thus
benefitting Amazon significantly.
Economic Impact
The impact of the economic forces on Amazon can be ascertained in the following
manner:
 The economic stability of the develop markets is a big opportunity as people are
open to buy good online, plus they have high purchasing power parity, which
helps Amazon to scale up its revenue and business.
 There has been an increasing trend in the disposable income of the people living
in developing countries, especially the APAC countries, this indicates that a large
number of people are shopping online, thus creating opportunity for Amazon.
 A threat of Amazon can be a possible economic recession in China, which would
impact the ability of Amazon to make a mark in the Chinese market(Rangel,
2018).
Socio/Cultural Impact
This is one of the major forces in the PESTLE framework, and its impact on Amazon can
be ascertained as:
 Growing wealth disparity of the people living in both the developed and
developing countries can be seen as a threat, as the rich and wealthy would look
for other ways of shopping due to the rising wealth disparity.
 The developing countries serve as an open market to Amazon, and the growing
consumerism in these markets can be seen as an opportunity for the
organization.
 The people are moving towards online buying, their habits have transformed
from traditional ways of shopping to online shopping. Thus creating opportunity
for Amazon(Jindal & Jindal, 2016).

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 10
Technological Impact
Technology has a major role to play in the business model of e-commerce, the impact of
the force can be ascertained as:
 Technology in the present business day is getting obsolete with every passing
day, this serves as both opportunity and threat for Amazon. The threat in the
sense, technology can make the business model of Amazon look weak in front of
a new company with advanced tech. At the same time, R&D investment and
innovation in technology can help Amazon to outsmart all the existing and future
competition in the e-commerce sector.
 Increasing IT efficiency in the overall sector is a big opportunity of Amazon, as it
calls for better IT development to further expedite the process of online
shopping.
 Cyber-crime over the last couple of years is an alarming condition for Amazon.
The people would get wary in doing transaction online, thus limiting the ability
of Amazon to penetrate in the market(Drummond, 2017).
Legal Factors
The impact of legal factors on Amazon can be ascertained in the following ways:
 Increasing product regulation by government will help Amazon in curtailing the
counterfeiting activity, and will increase the ability of the company to provide
quality and original goods to the consumers.
 The ease in the import and export policies will help Amazon to cater to different
markets, and also to get sellers from across the globe on its platform, this is most
definitely an opportunity for the company(Vaidya & Khachane, 2017).
Environmental Impact
Every country is increasing its efforts to clean the nature and is punishing organization
which is degrading the environment. The impact of environmental forces on Amazon
can be ascertained in the following ways:

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 11
 The interest of government in the environmental program can benefit Amazon
through its corporate social responsibility. The company would also spend more
to ensure the sustainability of the environment.
 The company is pushing its efforts to bring in 100% recyclable packaging, so that
the company can reduce its waste to the environment.
 Increasing popularity of the low carbon style is an opportunity for Amazon, as
the company can create an extensive energy saving process to build a brand
image in the market(Kumar & Qureshi, 2017).
The PESTLE analysis shows that Amazon has less impact of the environmental forces on
its business operations, however, it is advised that the company rolls up its sleeves to
leverage the existing technology and speed up its efforts towards the environmental
sustainability programs.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is an internal environment framework which helps the organization to
identify its strength and weakness which are internal to the firm, and also helps to focus
on the opportunity ad threat which is external to the organization. The takeaway of
SWOT analysis is that organization get to leverage on its strength, while minimizing its
weakness and staying strong towards the potential opportunity and threats(Poornima
et. al., 2016).
Strength
 The company has a strong background and a rich experience in the e-commerce
sector which is its biggest strength,
 The company’s policies are customer centric in nature, which makes its
customer’s value the firm.
 The company has a cost leadership as it always thrives to offer the goods at
lowest prices possible.
 Amazon has highly efficient delivery network and strong strategic partnership
with sellers who fulfil the requirement of the company.

Workplace culture and its impact on organizational efficiency P a g e | 12
 Amazon adopts GLOCAL strategy, which is its international expansion strategy
which goes as “Go Global and Think Local”. This strategy has helped Amazon to
create a successful base in different countries.
 Amazon.com believes in acquisitions, the company has had several acquisitions
in the past which have helped the company to scale up its operations.
 Amazon cloud services AWS is the largest cloud service provider and also helps
the company in ensuring safety of the customer data.
 Amazon focuses on innovation and creativity in the organization, this has led the
company to create products such as Amazon Alexa, Kindle and Fire stick. This
helps the company in leading the race of tech companies(Belk et. al., 2014).
 Excellent customer service and social listening skills.
Weakness
 Amazon is facing troubles due to the shrinking profits margins; the revenue is on
an upward trend, but due to increasing competition and marketing efforts of the
organization its profits are being impacted significantly.
 Amazon has been at the centre of many tax avoidance issues in the US and India,
this creates troubles for the e-commerce giant.
 Some of the created products of Amazon did not scale up to the organization’s
perception, thus putting a deep hole in the pockets of the company.
 Amazon’s refund policy is not as effective in comparison to other players, and it
takes a lot of time to get the refund on the product returned(Herbich, 2017).
Opportunity
 Many countries are giving a nod to the click and mortar model, thus Amazon has
the opportunity of scaling up the customer experience by opening up Amazon
retail stores for its customers(Dhawan , Singh & Kumar, 2017).
 Increasing globalization makes it an opportunity for Amazon to foray into other
international markets.
 The growth in online entertainment will help Amazon to focus on Amazon prime
and make it a strong revenue generator.
 The company has strong growth opportunities in the Asian countries owing to
the strong growth and potential shown by these countries.